System and method for providing dynamic user information in an interactive display

ABSTRACT

The present invention is directed to a method and system for use in a computing environment to present and provide access to information that a user cares about. A scheme is provided for presenting frequently used controls and information in tiles within a sidebar. Tiles are hosted individually or in groups, within a sidebar, for interaction by a user. Tiles can be added or removed from the sidebar automatically or by user request. The present invention is further directed to a method for providing a scaleable and useable preview of tiles within a sidebar. Further still, the present invention is directed to maintaining an overflow area of icons for tiles that would not fit within the sidebar. The sidebar has content that dynamically adjusts in response to the addition, expansion, squishing or removal of tiles. Even Further, a user can customize the sidebar of the present invention.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

None.

STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

None.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to computing environments. Moreparticularly, the invention is to directed to a system and method forpresenting information for selection and interaction by end users. Thepresent invention displays tiles of controls, status and applicationinterfaces within a dynamic area of a display screen.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

In today's information saturated environments, such as the Internet, alocal or remote computer network, or any combination of the Internet andsuch networks, it is often difficult for a user to keep track of thepotentially large amounts and variety of communications and informationin which the user may be interested. Such communications and informationinclude, for example, email, instant messaging, file transfers, localweather, appointments, schedules, personal contacts, statisticalinformation, file status, stock quotes, sports scores, local traffic, orany other type of communications or information that may be of interestto the user. This problem becomes particularly acute where thecommunications and/or information are dynamic, such that rapid,numerous, or large changes to the communications status or channels, orin the information of interest to the user results in out of datecommunications and/or information that is often relatively useless to auser.

In response to this problem, several conventional schemes have beendeveloped to assist users in attempting to keep track of specificcommunications or information without requiring a user to manuallysearch out or manually check for updates to the communications orinformation each time the user wants to examine the communications orinformation. However, such schemes are typically limited by what typesof communications or information can be tracked or displayed, by themanner in which the communications or information is accessed orotherwise provided to the user, or by the inability to facilitatesharing of the communications or information between users. Further,conventional schemes that have attempted to address these problems tendto be limited by an inability to provide a single interface that allowsfor concurrent information retrieval, display or access in combinationwith communications and communication access points in a dynamicintegrated environment. Consequently, users are often left withcluttered displays, which provide access or interaction with eitherparticular types of communications, or with specific information, butnot with both communications and information access and interaction inan integrated environment.

Several conventional messaging type schemes have attempted to partiallyaddress some of these problems. However, such schemes typically providerelatively large windows that take up substantial amounts of screen ordisplay real estate. Further, such schemes, while providing somecommunications capabilities along with some information gathering ordisplay capabilities, tend to separate the communications capabilitiesfrom the information capabilities via one or more tabs or the like.Consequently, particular information cannot be easily shared orcommunicated from within the applications provided by these schemes.Further, such schemes become unwieldy as the amount of information beingtracked by a user increases, and as the number of communicationscontacts maintained by the user increases. In particular, as the amountof contacts and/or information increases, the user is forced to scrollthrough large amounts of data or communications channels to find what heor she is looking for.

For example, several conventional messaging type schemes provide similarcapabilities for keeping track of or watching information, such as stockquotes, weather, news, or other information via the Internet or someother local or remote network, or some combination thereof. Furtherthese conventional schemes also provide for some sort of communicationsaccess such as, text instant messaging, file transfer, email, etc., viaone of a number of communications channels for contacts in one or moregroups of contacts. Consequently, a user is able to keep track ofparticular information of interest, as well as to communicate withparticular people or entities. Unfortunately, with these schemes, theuser cannot do both simultaneously. He is forced to tab between thedifferent types of information and the communications capabilities.Therefore, the user is unable to share data observed via the differentinformation tabs with contacts in the communications tab unless the usermanually saves or copies the information, switches tabs, then manuallycreates a message to a particular contact, and either attaches or pastesthe information to that message.

Further, because these conventional schemes tend to have a number oftabs, they require a fairly large window in order to display theinformation and associated controls or icons. Unfortunately, suchwindows tend to get buried under other application windows when the useris using other applications. Consequently, the user is often forced tointerrupt his or her flow of work to switch between windows. Thisparticular problem has been addressed by some of these schemes byproviding an option to always keep the message window on top.Consequently, while solving the problem of burying the messaging window,a new problem is created. Specifically, the messaging window thenoccludes a potentially large part of any other open application window.While it is possible to manually resize the different applicationwindows and to move them around the screen in an attempt to give eachwindow its own space, such manual user intervention can be both timeconsuming and aggravating for the typical user.

At least one conventional scheme has attempted to address some of theproblems of the aforementioned schemes. For example, one conventionalscheme provides an application that allows a user to customize at leastone icon in a scrollable strip along one edge of a computer displaydevice. This scheme provides iconized links to particular informationsources, and uses conventional techniques to populate each customizedicon with information retrieved from the information sources. However,this scheme has several important limitations.

In particular, while this scheme provides for gathering and providinginformation to a user, it fails to provide the level of communicationscapabilities offered by the aforementioned messaging schemes. Forexample, this scheme does not provide a means for initiatingcommunication via an icon, so while an icon may provide a communicationstatus, such as a number of received messages, it does not provide ameans for responding to such messages. Further, this scheme does notprovide for nesting or otherwise organizing groups of icons in order toaggregate multiple icons. In other words, opening the window associatedwith one icon does not provide access to further levels of groupedicons. Consequently, it is difficult to organize icons where a largenumber of icons are used. In addition, the icons of this scheme are noteasily transportable. In other words, there is no real mechanism fortransferring icons between users. Instead, users are required to obtainthe icons from an application used for managing the icons. Otherlimitations of this scheme include a lack of an ability to resize thewindow containing the scrollable strip used for displaying the icons.Further, with this scheme, if a user adds too many items, another row orstrip is automatically created within the window, even if that row hasonly one icon. Consequently, this scheme can potentially cause a largewaste of valuable display space.

A related scheme allows a user to customize a scrolling ticker typedisplay window to provide continuously updated scrolling informationfrom a predefined set of available information. While useful, thisscheme is even more limited than the prior scheme for several reasons.Most important among these limitations is that the set of informationthat is available to this scheme is predefined. Thus, if the informationtype and source is not listed as an option with this scheme, it issimply not available. However, users are provided with limited controlover certain information options, such as, for example, specific stocksymbols for stock quotes, choosing areas or topics of news to generatean automatic alert, or choosing particular cities to generate a weatherreport. Another limitation is that users are not able to add or editinformation sources, such as by modifying the icons as described above.Further limitations of this scheme include that fact that since theticker scrolls, there is no guarantee that all the information ofinterest will be visually available at any given time. Specifically, ifthe information of interest to a user is not currently visible, the usermust wait until the information scrolls into view. Consequently, such ascheme can become very distracting to the user as the user is forced todirect a large amount of attention to the display in order to retrievedesired information. Further, because the scrolling ticker is inconstant motion, it is in itself potentially very distracting to a useras it creates a persistent motion in the user's peripheral vision.Finally, the communications capability of this scheme is virtuallynonexistent in comparison to the aforementioned messaging schemes.

Still other schemes for providing custom information views or displaysinvolve a technique known as “web scraping.” In general, such schemesallow a user to specify particular portions of unique Internet Webpages, i.e., source web pages, to be displayed on a single customizedweb page. Consequently, while such schemes provide for informationretrieval and display, they do not provide for communicationscapability.

For example, one web scraping scheme allows users to “clip” relevantdata and content from various Internet web sites and pull it alltogether in one dynamic browser page, called a “view.” This view iseffectively a composite web page. Thus, as any of the source web pagesare changed, the composite web page is automatically updated. Further,this scheme allows users to edit views in a variety of ways, such as byadding, deleting and rearranging data elements and personalizing theview with the user's own inputs. In addition, this scheme provides amethod for transferring views between users. However, this schemesuffers from many of the same basic limitations described above withrespect to the aforementioned schemes. Such limitations include aninability to nest or organize views, or to arrange for a plurality ofviews to be displayed simultaneously. Also, as mentioned above, suchschemes typically provide little or no communications or messagingcapabilities.

Further limitations of web scraping include the fact that the views ofthis scheme must be opened in a window that typically takes up asubstantial portion of a display device, if not the entire displaydevice, and thus, it cannot provide an unobtrusive method for providinginformation to the user. In addition, typical web pages, as well asspecific content of those web pages, are typically not designed tominimize the area in which information is displayed. In other words,such web pages and content are simply not designed with the idea ofsqueezing lots of important information into very small spaces.Consequently, the end result of web scraping is a composite web pagethat tends to be a very inefficient use of screen space. Further, if aportion of the web page that is scraped or otherwise clipped from anexisting web page includes an animation, the web page can be verydistracting if it's in the user's peripheral vision. Finally, becausethe web scraping technique is effectively a patchwork of distinctelements, the composite web page resulting from such techniques istypically an unappealing jumble of disparate elements that were nevervisually designed to appear together on a single page.

In some instances, a user may want to be aware of real-time informationand notifications. Conventional user interface systems do not provide asolution that addresses both of these needs, while also providing theuser with flexibility, ease of use, and choice in configuration. Anotification or real-time window will traditionally take up part of theuser's viewing real estate and in some instances will cause the userhave to arrange display windows.

Even further, users frequently need to use controls or other applicationinterfaces that are independent of their current task. In those cases, auser has to switch from their current task window to another window orapplication in order to use the needed control or interface. Forexample, if a user was using a word processing package and wanted tochange a compact disk track or other such task, the user will need toaccess the controls of a media player application program, whichtypically is displayed in a different window. An example of this is theWINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER in an environment such as the Window OperatingSystem.

Consequently, what is needed is a new system and process forautomatically providing dynamic communication access and informationawareness in an interactive peripheral display without requiring a userto tab between communications channels or information types. Further,such a system and process should not require a user to choose from apredefined list of communication access points and informationcategories or sources, but instead should allow for creation andcustomization of communications access points and information sources.Such communications access points should include communications channelsfor contacting other entities, and the display of information frommultiple applications. The information sources should include anydesired information elements, such as, for example, specific informationtypes, information categories, or information sources. In addition, thissystem and process should allow users to customize and aggregate ororganize any desired communication channels or access points, or anydesired information sources into any desired number of groups or nestedgroups. Also, these groups or nested groups should be capable of beingexpanded by the user to allow the user to view nested groups orcommunication access points or information elements within these groupsor nested groups. Finally, this system and process should reduce clutterand increase consistency in the user display, while providing liveinformation that users care about, and a platform for frequently usedcontrols.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a method and system for use in acomputing environment to present and provide access to information ofinterest to a user. A scheme is provided for presenting frequently usedcontrols and information.

In one aspect, the present invention is directed to hosting tilesindividually or in groups, within a sidebar, for interaction by a user.Tiles can be added or removed from the sidebar automatically or by userrequest. Tiles provide quick, convenient and consistent access to bothlive and static information. In addition, tiles provide notification tousers.

In another aspect, the present invention is directed to a method forproviding a scaleable and useable preview of tiles within a sidebar.

In yet another aspect, the present invention is directed to maintainingan overflow area of icons for tiles that do not fit within the sidebar.

In a further aspect, the present invention is directed to a sidebar thathas content that dynamically adjusts in response to the addition,expansion, squishing or removal of tiles. Furthermore, a user cancustomize the sidebar of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING

The present invention is described in detail below with reference to theattached drawings figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is an exemplary computing environment in which the presentinvention may be practiced;

FIG. 2 is a screen shot illustrating a conventional user interface taskbar in a computing environment;

FIG. 3 is a screen shot illustration of a sidebar for practicing thepresent invention;

FIG. 4 is a screen shot illustrating an expanded flyout of a tile withina sidebar;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flyout of a tile from the sidebar of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6A depicts a sidebar filled with a plurality of tile items;

FIG. 6B depicts a sidebar filled with a plurality of tile items and anoverflow area with a row of icons;

FIG. 6C depicts a sidebar filled with a plurality of tile items, anoverflow area with a row of icons, and a tile flyout from the overflowarea;

FIG. 6D depicts a sidebar filled with a plurality of tile items and anoverflow area with multiple rows of icons;

FIG. 7A illustrates the addition of a first new tile along with theassociated user prompt;

FIG. 7B illustrates the addition of a second new tile along with theassociated user prompt;

FIG. 7C illustrates the sidebar and the location of the newly addedtiles;

FIG. 8A illustrates a sidebar prior to the appearance of a transienttile;

FIG. 8B illustrates the sidebar of FIG. 8A including a transient tile;

FIG. 8C illustrates the sidebar of FIG. 8B after the transient tile hasbeen removed and placed in an overflow area;

FIG. 9 illustrates an exemplary configuration screen to facilitate auser's request to add or remove tiles from the sidebar;

FIG. 10A illustrates a sidebar with tiles displayed in the default size;

FIG. 10B illustrates the sidebar of FIG. 10A with one of the tileshaving been resized;

FIG. 11A illustrates a sidebar along with an exemplary menu of optionsthat may be available to a user for customizing the sidebar;

FIG. 11B illustrates a sidebar across the bottom of a display in onecustomized configuration;

FIG. 11C illustrates a sidebar reduced to icons in a second customizedconfiguration; and

FIG. 12 illustrates a multi-column sidebar.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is directed to a system and method for providing auser interface with scalable prioritized tiles in an interactiveperipheral view display. The tiles are non-overlapping and are arrangedin adjoining positions to one another within a sidebar. The sidebar canbe positioned in a horizontal or vertical configuration anywhere withinthe visual display area of a user's screen. Furthermore, the sidebarallows for automatic or user directed addition or removal of tiles. Evenfurther, the sidebar visibly shrinks its content display, to provideusers with a preview of the positioning and appearance of a newly addedtile. Further still, an overflow area is provided for icons thatrepresent tiles that could not fit within the sidebar.

Having briefly provided an overview of the present invention, anembodiment of the invention will be discussed with reference to FIGS.1-12. An exemplary operating environment for the present invention isdescribed below.

Exemplary Operating Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment100 on which the invention may be implemented. The computing systemenvironment 100 is only one example of a suitable computing environmentand is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use orfunctionality of the invention. Neither should the computing environment100 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating toany one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplaryoperating environment 100.

The invention may be described in the general context ofcomputer-executable instructions, such as program modules, beingexecuted by a computer. Generally, program modules include routines,programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Moreover,those skilled in the art will appreciate that the invention may bepracticed with other computer system configurations, including hand-helddevices, multiprocessor systems, microprocessor-based or programmableconsumer electronics, minicomputers, mainframe computers, and the like.The invention may also be practiced in distributed computingenvironments where tasks are performed by remote processing devices thatare linked through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotecomputer storage media including memory storage devices.

With reference to FIG. 1, an exemplary system 100 for implementing theinvention includes a general purpose computing device in the form of acomputer 110 including a processing unit 120, a system memory 130, and asystem bus 121 that couples various system components including thesystem memory to the processing unit 120.

Computer 110 typically includes a variety of computer readable media. Byway of example, and not limitation, computer readable media may comprisecomputer storage media and communication media. The system memory 130includes computer storage media in the form of volatile and/ornonvolatile memory such as read only memory (ROM) 131 and random accessmemory (RAM) 132. A basic input/output system 133 (BIOS), containing thebasic routines that help to transfer information between elements withincomputer 110, such as during start-up, is typically stored in ROM 131.RAM 132 typically contains data and/or program modules that areimmediately accessible to and/or presently being operated on byprocessing unit 120. By way of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1illustrates operating system 134, application programs 135, otherprogram modules 136, and program data 137.

The computer 110 may also include other removable/nonremovable,volatile/nonvolatile computer storage media. By way of example only,FIG. 1 illustrates a hard disk drive 141 that reads from or writes tononremovable, nonvolatile magnetic media, a magnetic disk drive 151 thatreads from or writes to a removable, nonvolatile magnetic disk 152, andan optical disk drive 155 that reads from or writes to a removable,nonvolatile optical disk 156 such as a CD ROM or other optical media.Other removable/nonremovable, volatile/nonvolatile computer storagemedia that can be used in the exemplary operating environment include,but are not limited to, magnetic tape cassettes, flash memory cards,digital versatile disks, digital video tape, solid state RAM, solidstate ROM, and the like. The hard disk drive 141 is typically connectedto the system bus 121 through an non-removable memory interface such asinterface 140, and magnetic disk drive 151 and optical disk drive 155are typically connected to the system bus 121 by a removable memoryinterface, such as interface 150.

The drives and their associated computer storage media discussed aboveand illustrated in FIG. 1, provide storage of computer readableinstructions, data structures, program modules and other data for thecomputer 110. In FIG. 1, for example, hard disk drive 141 is illustratedas storing operating system 144, application programs 145, other programmodules 146, and program data 147. Note that these components can eitherbe the same as or different from operating system 134, applicationprograms 135, other program modules 136, and program data 137. Operatingsystem 144, application programs 145, other program modules 146, andprogram data 147 are given different numbers here to illustrate that, ata minimum, they are different copies. A user may enter commands andinformation into the computer 110 through input devices such as akeyboard 162 and pointing device 161, commonly referred to as a mouse,trackball or touch pad. Other input devices (not shown) may include amicrophone, joystick, game pad, satellite dish, scanner, or the like.These and other input devices are often connected to the processing unit120 through a user input interface 160 that is coupled to the systembus, but may be connected by other interface and bus structures, such asa parallel port, game port or a universal serial bus (USB). A monitor191 or other type of display device is also connected to the system bus121 via an interface, such as a video interface 190. In addition to themonitor, computers may also include other peripheral output devices suchas speakers 197 and printer 196, which may be connected through anoutput peripheral interface 195.

The computer 110 in the present invention will operate in a networkedenvironment using logical connections to one or more remote computers,such as a remote computer 180. The remote computer 180 may be a personalcomputer, and typically includes many or all of the elements describedabove relative to the computer 110, although only a memory storagedevice 181 has been illustrated in FIG. 1. The logical connectionsdepicted in FIG. 1 include a local area network (LAN) 171 and a widearea network (WAN) 173, but may also include other networks.

When used in a LAN networking environment, the computer 110 is connectedto the LAN 171 through a network interface or adapter 170. When used ina WAN networking environment, the computer 110 typically includes amodem 172 or other means for establishing communications over the WAN173, such as the Internet. The modem 172, which may be internal orexternal, may be connected to the system bus 121 via the user inputinterface 160, or other appropriate mechanism. In a networkedenvironment, program modules depicted relative to the computer 110, orportions thereof, may be stored in the remote memory storage device. Byway of example, and not limitation, FIG. 1 illustrates remoteapplication programs 185 as residing on memory device 181. It will beappreciated that the network connections shown are exemplary and othermeans of establishing a communications link between the computers may beused.

Although many other internal components of the computer 110 are notshown, those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that suchcomponents and the interconnection are well known. Accordingly,additional details concerning the internal construction of the computer110 need not be disclosed in connection with the present invention.

User Interface Sidebar

In order to understand and appreciate the present invention, it isnecessary to first explore the concept of a sidebar and tiles. As usedherein, a sidebar refers to a persistent display strip along one or moreedges of a conventional display device. A tile is a dynamic thumbnail or“item” comprising, a combination of a description of information ofinterest and a “viewer” for displaying whatever information isrepresented. A more detailed description of the sidebar and the tile,which is otherwise referred to as a ticket, can be found in theapplication for letters patent, Ser. No. 10/063,296, filed Jun. 8, 2001which is hereby incorporated by reference.

As previously mentioned, conventional user interface displays are veryrestricted in the information that they convey or present to a user.Such systems typically provide a task bar from which a user is able toactivate an application window of interest in order to interact orobtain information. Various control types are utilized by suchconventional prior art systems to present information to a user. Some ofthese control types include scroll bars, expandable short lists, startmenus, dash boards and controls that cause only active items to bevisible. An example of a conventional user interface is illustrated inFIG. 2 and generally referenced as display 200.

As shown, display 200 includes a taskbar 202. Generally, taskbar 202 maycontain a variety of task groupings or sections that provide access toapplications or features of the operating environment through icons. Forexample, a section of taskbar 202 may provide a quick-launch section204. Quick-Launch 204 enables the launching of one or more applicationprograms such as a word processing application program, electronic mailprogram, or any other programs on the computing system that may havebeen appropriately configured to start from quick launch 204.

Another section of taskbar 202, such as live-tasks 204, may listcurrently executing tasks. From live-tasks 204, a user may access adisplay window that is associated with a program in order to interactwith program specific live data. An example of such a window is themedia-player 206 window. Using the media-player 206 window, a user canview live information regarding the currently playing media and directthe actions of the media player at the user's discretion.

Yet another section of taskbar 202 may be a desk-band 208. Desk-band 208is an example of language controls for the operating environment.

A section of taskbar 202 may also contain notifications 210.Notification area 210 provides icons relating to application programs orsystem level communications. For example, electronic mail status, chatgroup buddies or even volume control can be accessed through icons inthe notifications section 210.

In an attempt to provide live status information, taskbar 202 providesfor a toast 212. Toast 212 is essentially a pop-up window that providescommunication from an application program. For example, as shown apop-up message is displayed informing the user that there are messagesin an inbox.

Finally, taskbar 202 provides for a start icon 214 that provides accessto other programs and features of the operating environment. It shouldbe noted that the described contents of the taskbar are merelyrepresentative and not intended to be an exhaustive list.

As can be appreciated, taskbar 202 can become quite cluttered.Furthermore, the various types of icons available to an end user areinconsistent. Even further, taskbar 202 does not easily provide a userwith information and controls that the user may need to immediatelyaccess. Further still, taskbar 202 involves a multiple step approach toaccess any information. For example, to get access to a volume control,a user must first select the volume control icon from the notificationssection 210. This causes a volume control to be displayed. The user canthen adjust the volume to the desired level.

A resolution to this tedium is provided by the system and method of thepresent invention and generally referenced as display 300, illustratedin FIG. 3A. Shown in display 300, is a sidebar 302. Sidebar 302 providesan opportunity to reduce screen clutter and increase consistency in theway that information is conveyed to a user. Furthermore, sidebar 302 asdisplayed includes a live-data area 304, for live information ofinterest to the user, as well as a platform important-controls area 306,for frequently used controls. Within live-data 304, there may be aplurality of tiles related to a plurality of applications andinformation items. Important-controls 306 may also contain tiles for anyone or more items used in controlling system or application parameters.

Live-data 304 contains for example, a ‘Pamela Jones Online’ tile 308,which may provide access to Internet or network applications, or otherfunctions including messaging, chat, email and browsing. ‘Pamela JonesOnline’ tile 308 further contains individual contact tiles 310. Some ofthe individual contact tiles 310, for ‘Pamela Jones Online’ 308 are alsodisplayed within live-data 304. In other words, ‘Pamela Jones Online’tile 308 may be thought of as a header and the individual contact tiles310 would be considered the body. Another example of live-data 304 isthe email notification tile 312, which contains a listing of emails 314.As shown, email notification 312 indicates that there are two new mailmessages. Correspondingly, the top tow email listings 314, arehighlighted to indicate that they are new and unread. Yet anotherexample of live-data 304 is a video tile 316, which is updated in realtime within the sidebar 302. Sidebar 302 can be presented or located ina variety of ways and provide varying information.

In order to provide a frame work for understanding the presentinvention, an overview of is described with reference to FIG. 3B. Moredetailed information on the various aspects will be provided through thecourse of the entire document. In operation, one or more tiles areprovided in a sidebar 302, at step 320. As previously explained, thetiles provide a user with access to items of interest such as live dataand access to frequently used controls. A user has the ability to modifythe sidebar 302. In other words, a user can add, remove, resize tiles orperform other manipulation of the displayed tiles as necessary. Thefollowing discussion will discuss the addition of a single tile, but asit should be understood that the concepts are equally applicable tomultiple tiles and other modifications.

As shown at step 322, a user may add a new tile to the sidebar 302. Whena tile is added, the system and method of the present inventiondetermines if the total display area to be occupied by all tiles,including the new tile will exceed the display area of the sidebar. Thisdetermination is made at step 324. In other words, a determination ismade as to whether there is enough room to fit the new tile, in additionto the existing tiles within the sidebar, using the default sizes of allthe tiles. If it is the case that the tiles will all fit, then the newtile is added to the sidebar and displayed, at step 336.

On the other hand, if it is determined at step 324 that the new tilewill not fit at its default size, then all the tiles are squished. Thismeans that both existing tiles and the new tile are scaled down in sizewithin the sidebar, at step 326. The new tile is shown in a previewstate which may not necessarily show the complete content of the tile.In other words, if the previewed tile has a natural size that is toolarge, the tile may be cut off in addition to being scaled down. At theconclusion of the preview, the new tile grows to its natural size andmay remain in the sidebar or be moved into an overflow area as discussedlater in this document. Other tiles in the sidebar are typically justscaled down. The tiles are reduced to the extent necessary for all ofthe tiles to visibly fit within the sidebar 302. Next, the presentinvention applies any one of a number of criteria to select which tilesand how many of them would need to be removed from the sidebar, at step328. The purpose being to enable the remaining tiles to be displayed attheir default sizes. At step 330, the tile(s) selected in the previousstep are removed. Concurrent with the removal of any tile, an icon iscreated to represent the removed tile. The icon is placed in an overflowarea, at step 332. The overflow area will be described in more detaillater in this document. With the ‘excess’ tile(s) out of the way, theremaining tiles are expanded to their default sizes, at step 334 andthen displayed in the sidebar 302, at step 336.

Other examples of ‘sidebar-like’ features are shown in display 400 ofFIG. 4. As shown, Sidebar 402 contains a number of video tiles, a livestock status tile, and a number of other tiles to various news sources.Sidebar 410 presents e-mail, calendar, contacts, stock information andwebsite favorites. Sidebar 412 also presents weather, messengercontacts, icons to other tiles and a media player control. Of particularnote in sidebar 402, is flyout 408, which is an expanded view of one ofthe video tiles.

The expanded view of a tile can vary depending on the type of tile andthe tile's other contents. For example, as shown in screen illustration500 of FIG. 5, ‘Pamela Jones Online’ tile is shown in a flyout 508.Within the flyout 508 there are two categories of displayed information.A first category is the online group 510, which may have one or moreonline individual contacts and groups, 510. The second category is theoffline group 512, which may have just an individual contact. It shouldbe noted that when the information for ‘Pamela Jones Online’ isdisplayed within the sidebar 502, the body 506 includes individualcontacts from both the online group 510 and the offline group 512. Inother words, the two categories of the flyout 508 are blended in thesidebar 502. For example, offline contact 512A (Harold) is includedwithin the body 506 of sidebar 502 and is displayed as individualcontact 506B (Harold) in flyout 508.

Thus far, the discussion has focused on the parts of the sidebar and theinformation that it conveys. An aspect of the present invention isdirected to the scalability of the sidebar. More particularly, an aspectis directed to how the sidebar handles existing and newly added tiles.In order to facilitate an understanding of scalability as provided bythe present invention, an exemplary sidebar embodiment will be discussedwith reference to FIGS. 6A-6D.

User Interface Squishing

Turning initially to FIG. 6A, a display 600 illustrates a sidebarpopulated with a plurality of tiles, to what appears to be the sidebar'smaximum capacity for tiles. For clarity and ease of discussion, thisfully populated sidebar will be referenced as max-sidebar 602. As shown,max-sidebar 602 merely contains other tiles in addition to those foundin sidebar 302 of FIG. 3. Otherwise, the sidebars 302, 602 are similarand are characterized by the same features. For example, a meetingnotification tile 604 in FIG. 6A along with calendar items 606, wereadded to max-sidebar 602. Meeting notification tile 604 is the headerinformation and calendar items 606 are the body. Also added tomax-sidebar 602 is a progress bar 608 that provides download progressionor resource utilization information, such as battery power. Another setof tiles that are included in max-sidebar 602 are stock tiles 610 thatdisplay a portfolio of live stock information.

The point being that at any point in time, quick and convenient accessto some informational items may be achieved by adding other tiles to asidebar. However, as previously noted, it may well be the case thatmax-sidebar 602 already contains the maximum number of tiles that it isable to display. An aspect of the system and method of the presentinvention provides a solution to overcome this limit. The presentinvention provides for an overflow area within the sidebar, to locateicons for tiles that cannot fit in the sidebar. This feature isillustrated in FIG. 6B.

As shown in FIG. 6B, two new individual contacts are added tomax-sidebar 602. In particular, new individual contacts ‘Jimbo Jones’and ‘Bilbo Baggins’, were added to the contacts 603 of the ‘Pamela JonesOnline’ header tile. The effect of this addition is that there isinsufficient room in max-sidebar 602 for all of the tiles. As a result,the system and method of the present invention provides for the removalof one or more tiles from max-sidebar 602, in order to make room for thenew tiles.

Any one of a number of conventional selection criteria can accomplishdetermining which tiles get removed and iconized. Typically, the tile(s)at the bottom of the sidebar get moved into the overflow area. Selectioncould also be based on a first in last out, least utilized tile, lowestpriority tile, user selected tile or any one of a number of criteria. Ineither case, once the selection is made, room is created in anappropriate position of max-sidebar 602 to hold the newly added tile(s).Removal of a tile does not completely eliminate access to the tile frommax-sidebar 602. Instead, Icons 614 are created to represent removedtiles. Icons 614 are placed in an overflow area 612 of max-sidebar 602.For example, in the illustrated screen of FIG. 6B, the addition of thenew individual contacts resulted in the removal and iconization of thestock quote tiles 610. Icon 614A was thus created and placed in theoverflow area 612. In order to access or view the stock quotes 610, auser may select Icon 614A.

FIG. 6C illustrates max-sidebar 602 including the overflow area 612 anda Portfolio flyout 616. Portfolio flyout 616 is associated with andcontains the stock quote tiles 610. When Icon 614A is selected fromwithin the overflow area 612 portfolio flyout 616 is displayed. Flyout616 contains the stock quote tiles 610, which can then be accessed inthe same manner as when they were displayed within max-sidebar 602.

As the number of items moved from the max-sidebar 602 or directly addedinto the overflow area 612 increases, the overflow area 612 expands toaccommodate more icons. As best seen in FIG. 6D, an expanded-overflowarea 618 can contain multiple rows of Icons 614. In turn, this resultsin further removal and iconization of more tiles from the max-sidebar602 to make room for the expanded-overflow area 618. For example and asillustrated, the placement of the multiple rowed expanded-overflow area618 within the max-sidebar 602, results in removal and iconization ofthe volume control and progress bar 608.

Having discussed the resultant effects of the system and method of thepresent invention from a visual and user access perspective, we turnnext to the functions and process associated with adding or removingtiles from the sidebar, which will be discussed with reference to FIGS.7A to 7C.

It should be understood that tiles might be added to the sidebar in anautomatic or user request mode. Automatic addition occurs in conjunctionwith the installation of application programs and with the operation oftransient controls. User requested tile addition occurs through a tileconfiguration user interface program or by user designation within anapplication program. The mode of tile addition determines the priorityand consequently the position of the tile within the sidebar.

With regard to automatic tile addition, when an application is beinginstalled, the associated new tiles are added to the bottom of thesidebar. In an embodiment of the present invention, users are given anopportunity to preview the sidebar. Users can see what the sidebar willlook like, once the new tile has been added. For example, as shown inFIG. 7A, the addition of an electronic mail inbox tile 704 to thesidebar 702, results in a user prompt 706. With the aide of prompt 706,the user may selectively cause the inbox tile 704 to remain as shownwithin the sidebar 702 or be hidden. Similarly, in FIG. 7B, the user isprompted about adding the calendar tile 708 to the sidebar 702. When theuser selects to show the new tile in the sidebar, the new tile is addedto the bottom of the sidebar. This effect is illustrated in FIG. 7C,wherein electronic mail inbox tile 704 and calendar tile 708 are placedat the bottom of the sidebar 702. It should be understood that placementof tiles within the sidebar may vary according to other aspects of thepresent invention.

In a further aspect of the present invention, the user is given a timedopportunity to remove new tiles from the sidebar. Consistent with thisaspect, if there is insufficient room within the sidebar, existing tileswithin the sidebar are scaled down (squished) to make room for the newtile and give the user an opportunity to see what the new tile will looklike. In other words, there is a timed preview of the sidebar with theadded new tile. The preview lasts for a finite duration during which theuser may arrange the sidebar as needed. Thereafter, the sidebar expandsback to its normal size. A tile that is located at the bottom of thesidebar if the sidebar is full, is then moved into the overflow area andrepresented by an icon.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the preview time for a newtile is ten seconds. In other words, the tiles stay squished for tenseconds. Importantly, the squished tiles are still functional andselectable to respond as they would in the expanded state. The squishedtiles are scaled reductions not just small bitmap pictures of theoriginal tile.

There is a maximum display size for a tile during its preview, so as toprevent too much squishing of the other tiles within the sidebar. Themaximum display size is determined for example, based on displayresolution, available space or other such algorithms. During thesquishing of tiles, the horizontal and vertical aspect ratios of eachtile are maintained as to other tiles. Even further, there is a smooth,continuous transition from the full scale or expanded size of a tile tothe squished size of the tile. This transition prevents hard and jitterychanges that would impact the user experience.

The system and method of the present invention can handle a variety oftiles. Thus far, the discussion has focused on tiles that are alwaysvisibly present. Another type of tile that is addressed by the presentinvention is the transient tile. A transient tile is one that onlyappears as needed and generally appears at the bottom of the sidebar. Aswith the new tiles, if there is no room, the entire sidebar is squishedto make room for a previous addition of a transient tile. Here also,after a ten second preview, the sidebar expands and the transient tileis moved into the overflow area. Transient tiles can be removed fromeither the sidebar or overflow area, when they are no longer needed.When a transient tile does reappear, it returns to its last positionwithin the sidebar or overflow area.

The operations of a transient tile are best explained by way of anexample, as shown in display 800 of FIG. 8A. As shown, it will beobserved that the last tile within the sidebar 802 is a volume controltile 804, below which there is an overflow area 806. When a transientprogress bar tile 808 (FIG. 8B) is needed, the tile is added to thesidebar 802, causing the sidebar 802 to become squished to make room.This squished effect is illustrated in display 807 of FIG. 8B.

A squished-sidebar 810 is shown in display 807. The squished-sidebar 810has its entire constituent tiles scaled down from their previous sizesin sidebar 802 of FIG. 8A. As previously mentioned, this squishedpreview state is only maintained for a brief duration. The sidebarreturns to its unsquished state after the preview period and thetransient tile is placed in the overflow area. This effect is shown inFIG. 8C, where transient progress bar tile 808 is removed from thesidebar 812, and a new icon 814 representative of the transient tile isplaced in the overflow area 816.

Next, we consider the second mode of tile addition or removal operationswhich are namely user requested operations. User requested tileadditions or removals may occur via a configuration interface, such asthe one illustrated in display 900 of FIG. 9. By virtue of the operatingenvironment or any previously installed application programs, a user maybe presented with an options screen 902. In an embodiment of the presentinvention, option screen 902 includes an add tile column 904 and aremove tile column 906. Add tile column 904 provides the user with atile image 908, a description 910 and a show button 912. After reviewingan associated description 910, a user may select the show button 912, tocause the associated tile to be placed within a sidebar. The process forplacement of a tile within the sidebar is practically identical to thatdescribed earlier in reference to automatic tile addition. In otherwords, the squishing of the sidebar and movement of tiles into the overflow area are practically identical. However, one exception does existwith regards to the behavior of a tile prior to the tile being bumpedinto the overflow area. When a manually added tile has caused asquishing of the sidebar to occur, tiles that are about to be bumpedinto the overflow area will flash. In other words, prior to theexpansion of a previously squished sidebar and consequently the bumpingof any tiles into the overflow area, the attention of the user is drawnto the tiles that are about to be bumped.

Removal of an existing tile from the sidebar may be accompanied by userrequest via options screen 902. The remove tiles column 906 provides auser with a tile image 908, a properties icon 916 and a hide button 914.The remove tiles column 906 lists all existing and removable tiles thatare within the sidebar. The remove tiles column 906 also indicatesseparately tiles that are of a transient nature. Transient tiles aredesignated under the automatic tiles heading 918. The properties icon916, as the name suggests, enables the user to view information specificto the tile. The hide button 914 causes the removal of the associatedtile from the sidebar or overflow area. In the case of a transient tile,the hide button 914 prevents the tile from showing up within the sidebareven when the transient tile is needed.

As mentioned earlier, tile addition may also occur by user designationfrom within an application program. For instance, an application canhost a standard control that adds a tile to the sidebar. When such atile is added to the sidebar, the tile is placed at the top of the baras opposed to the other situations, where the tile is placed at thebottom of the bar. In those instances where there is insufficient roomin the sidebar, the sidebar is squished as in all other cases. Prior toexpansion, the tiles at the bottom flash before getting bumped into theoverflow.

An even further aspect of the present invention relates to thescalability and resizing of tiles. This aspect will be discussed withreference to FIGS. 10A and 10B. Generally, within the present invention,a tile can resize itself as needed. However, there is a threshold size,which a tile can only achieve with user approval. In an embodiment ofthe present invention, the utilized threshold is 200 logical pixels. Auser may manually resize a tile. When a manual resize occurs, the tileis prevented from automatically resizing. However, a user may re-grantpermission for the tile to resize.

Turning initially to display 1000 of FIG. 10A, a sidebar 1002 is shown.An ‘ACME Media’ tile 1004 is shown in the third position from the top ofthe sidebar 1002 and is immediately followed by an individual contacttile 1004, which is followed by several other tiles. Through userselection or automated expansion, ‘ACME Media’ tile 1004 is able toexpand. As shown in display 1006 of FIG. 10B, the expansion of ‘ACMEMedia’ tile 1004 causes all subsequent tiles within the sidebar 1002 toshift down. As previously explained once the shifting of tiles extendsbeyond the designated area for the sidebar 1002, tiles are moved intothe overflow area 1008. In conjunction with the tile expansion, a useris given an opportunity via a prompt to decide if the tile should remainin the expanded state or be returned to the smaller size. Such anillustrative prompt 1010 is shown in display 1006.

Another aspect of the present invention is directed to customizing thesidebar. A user can control how the sidebar and tiles are displayed.More particularly, a user may rearrange or resize tiles, relocate thesidebar on the screen, and minimize the sidebar while keeping access tothe tiles. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that there areseveral options which are typical to customizing a user interface, suchoptions are contemplated and are within the scope of the presentinvention. Examples of some available options are illustrated in display1100 of FIG. 11A. As shown, a user may select one of many custom optionsfor any tile within the sidebar 1102. For example, a user may collapsethe tile by use of option 1104, enable automatic or manual resizing withoption 1106, relocate the tile up or down relative to the other tiles inthe sidebar with option 1108, or simply hide the tile using option 1110.

A user may relocate the sidebar on the display screen. An example ofsuch relocation is shown in display 1112 of FIG. 11B. As shown, the‘sidebar’ 1114 is relocated to the bottom portion of the screen withtiles laid out one next to the other, as opposed to above or below eachother. One skilled in the art will appreciate that the sidebar could berelocated to other edges of the screen, have different orientation ofthe tiles or be located some distance from the edge of the screen.

Yet another custom feature provided by the system and method of thepresent invention is the option of having the sidebar minimized whilestill providing access to the tiles that were contained within thesidebar. For example, as shown in display 1116 of FIG. 11C, the sidebar1102 of FIG. 11A has been minimized. However, returning to FIG. 11C, agroup of icons 1118 are shown in the bottom right corner of the display.From these icons 1118, a user can access the tiles that were shown insidebar 1102 of FIG. 11A.

In another feature of the present invention, there could be multiplecolumns to a sidebar as can best be seen in FIG. 12. In such aninstance, tiles snake from one column to another either left to right orvice-versa before being removed into the overflow area. The column fromwhich the tiles will be shifted into the overflow area is the columnthat gets squished to provide a preview of an added tile. Within thepresent invention, there could also be multiple sidebars on one displayscreen or across several display screens.

A further aspect of the present invention provides for ‘pinning’ oftiles. Certain tiles can be pinned or fixedly located in a particularposition in the sidebar. The effect of this is that new tiles are addedaround the pinned tile i.e. new tiles are added above or below thepinned tile as the case may be. In other words, the pinned tiles are notlikely to get moved into the overflow area.

In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, sidebars as wellas tiles are created by utilizing application program interface (API)routines provided by the vendor of the operating system or other thirdparties. In the described examples of the preferred embodiment, theoperating system environment is Microsoft Windows. As would beunderstood by those skilled in the art, the system and method of thepresent invention could be implemented within other tools and otheroperating environments without departing from the scope contemplatedherein. Examples of tools in which the present invention can bepracticed include Direct X and Macromedia.

While particular embodiments of the invention have been illustrated anddescribed in detail herein, it should be understood that various changesand modifications might be made to the invention without departing fromthe scope and intent of the invention. The embodiments described hereinare intended in all respects to be illustrative rather than restrictive.Alternate embodiments will become apparent to those skilled in the artto which the present invention pertains without departing from itsscope.

From the foregoing it will be seen that this invention is one welladapted to attain all the ends and objects set for above, together withother advantages, which are obvious and inherent to the system andmethod. It will be understood that certain features and sub-combinationsare of utility and may be employed without reference to other featuresand sub-combinations. This is contemplated and within the scope of theappended claims.

1. A method in a computing system for a user interaction scheme,comprising: configuring a sidebar of a predetermined display size toprovide dynamic content that is updated automatically; hosting a firstgroup of tiles within the sidebar to display at least part of thedynamic content; in response to an automatic update of the dynamiccontent, providing for the addition of one or more tiles to said sidebarto display additional content produced by the update, resulting in asecond group of tiles; determining a total display area of the secondgroup of tiles based on default tile sizes; determining an availabledisplay area of the sidebar based on the predetermined display size;comparing the total display area to the available display area; and whenthe comparison indicates that the total display area exceeds theavailable display area, performing the following: shrinking said secondgroup of tiles to fit within said sidebar; and automatically removingone or more tiles from the second group of tiles in said sidebar so thata remainder of tiles in the second group of tiles is displayable atrespective default tile sizes in said sidebar while maintaining thesidebar at the predetermined display size, wherein the second group oftiles is displayed in a shrunken state prior to the automatic removal ofthe one or more tiles.
 2. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein saidshrinking is a scaling of said second group of tiles.
 3. A method asrecited in claim 1, further comprising: expanding the remainder of tilesof the second group of tiles to the default size after the one or moretiles have been removed.
 4. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein saidautomatic removal of said one or more tiles is performed by one or moreapplication programs.
 5. A method as recited in claim 1, furthercomprising identifying the one or more tiles to remove from the secondgroup of tiles is performed based on one or more criteria.
 6. A methodas recited in claim 5, wherein said one or more criteria is one from thegroup consisting of available space in said sidebar, default tile size,and tile priority.
 7. A method as recited in claim 1 further comprisingproviding an overflow area within said sidebar for displaying iconsrepresenting the removed one or more tiles.
 8. A method as recited inclaim 7 wherein the one or more removed tiles are converted to iconsthat are placed into said overflow area.
 9. The method of claim 8,wherein each displayed icon represents a respective one of the bumpedone or more tiles, and wherein each displayed icon includes visibleindicia of the respective bumped tile.
 10. A method as recited in claim7, wherein said overflow area has multiple rows of icons.
 11. A methodas recited in claim 7, wherein said overflow area expands in accordancewith an amount of needed space to display said removed one or moretiles.
 12. The method of claim 7, wherein a plurality of tiles areremoved, a plurality of icons being displayed in the overflow area torepresent the removed icons, wherein each displayed icon includesvisible indicia representing a corresponding one of the removed tiles.13. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said first group of tiles donot overlap one another and are variable in size.
 14. A method asrecited in claim 1, wherein said removed one or more tiles are placedinto a second sidebar.
 15. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein saidsidebar comprises multiple columns, the method further comprising movingone or more tiles from the second group of tiles into another column ofsaid sidebar.
 16. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein each of thesecond group of tiles displayed in their shrunken state is interactive.17. A method as recited in claim 1, wherein said shrinking maintains theaspect ratio of each of said second group of tiles.
 18. A method asrecited in claim 1, wherein said shrinking is a continuous transitionfrom full scale to a shrunken state.
 19. A method as recited in claim 1,wherein the content of said sidebar dynamically adjusts in response tothe addition, expansion, shrinking or removal of tiles.
 20. The methodof claim 1, wherein the sidebar is configured to automatically updatethe dynamic content to provide additional content associated with theinstallation of an application program.
 21. A method in a computingenvironment for providing information to a user, comprising: configuringa sidebar of a predetermined display size to provide dynamic contentthat is updated automatically; providing a plurality of tiles in a firstregion of the sidebar to display at least part of the dynamic content;providing an overflow area in a second region of the sidebar differentfrom the first region; in response to an automatic update of the dynamiccontent, creating an additional tile for displaying additional contentresulting from the update; determining a total display area of theplurality of tiles including the additional tile; determining anavailable display area of the sidebar based on the predetermined displaysize; comparing the total display area to the available display area;when the comparison indicates that the total display size exceeds theavailable display area, performing the following: automaticallyshrinking the plurality of tiles including the additional tile to fitwithin the sidebar; automatically bumping one or more of the shrunkentiles from the sidebar in order to display the remaining tiles in thesidebar at respective default tile sizes while maintaining the sidebarat the predetermined display size; and populating said overflow areawith icons that represent the one or more tiles that have been bumpedfrom said sidebar, said overflow area displaying said icons without userinteraction.
 22. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein prior tobumping said one or more tiles from said sidebar, said plurality oftiles are squished within said sidebar to notify a user that one or moretiles will be bumped from said sidebar.
 23. A method as recited in claim22, wherein said squished tiles are useable as displayed and are notjust bit image pictures.
 24. A method as recited in claim 22, whereinaspect ratio of tiles are maintained when said tiles are squished.
 25. Amethod as recited in claim 22, wherein there is a continuous transitionfrom full scale to said squished state.
 26. A method as recited in claim21, wherein prior to being bumped from the sidebar, said one or moretiles flash to provide visual notification to a user.
 27. A method asrecited in claim 21, wherein said one or more tiles get bumped due to anaddition of a new tile, and said addition is performed automatically byan application program.
 28. A method as recited in claim 21, whereinsaid one or more tiles get bumped due to an addition of a new tile, andsaid addition is performed manually by user request.
 29. A method asrecited in claim 21, wherein said one or more tiles that get bumped areselected according to at least one of default tile size and tilepriority.
 30. A method as recited in claim 21, wherein said plurality oftiles are not overlapping and can be varied in dimension to accommodatethe addition of other tiles.
 31. A method as recited in claim 21,wherein said overflow area has multiple rows of icons.
 32. A method asrecited in claim 21, wherein said overflow area can grow dynamically asneeded.
 33. The method of claim 21, wherein the sidebar is configured toautomatically update the dynamic content to provide additional contentassociated with the installation of an application program.
 34. Acomputer readable storage medium having computer executable instructionsfor performing a method in a computing system for a user interactionscheme, comprising: configuring a sidebar of a predetermined displaysize to provide dynamic content that is updated automatically; hosting afirst group of tiles within the sidebar to display at least part of thedynamic content; in response to an automatic update of the dynamiccontent, providing for the addition of one or more tiles to said sidebarto display additional content produced by the update, resulting in asecond group of tiles; determining a total display area of the secondgroup of tiles based on default tile sizes; determining an availabledisplay area of the sidebar based on the predetermined display size;comparing the total display area to the available display area; and whenthe comparison indicates that the total display area exceeds theavailable display area, performing the following: shrinking said secondgroup of tiles to fit within said sidebar; and automatically removing,by the computing system, one or more tiles from the second group oftiles in said sidebar so that a remainder of tiles of the second groupof tiles is displayable at respective default tile sizes whilemaintaining the sidebar at the predetermined display size, wherein thesecond group of tiles is displayed in a shrunken state in the sidebarprior to the one or more tiles being automatically removed.
 35. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 34, wherein said shrinking is ascaling of said second group of tiles.
 36. The computer readable mediumof claim 34, further comprising: expanding the remainder of tiles of thesecond group of tiles to the default size after the one or more tileshave been removed.
 37. The computer readable medium of claim 36, whereina plurality of tiles are removed, the method further comprisingproviding an overflow area within said sidebar for displaying iconsrepresenting the removed tiles, each displayed icon having visualindicia of a corresponding one of the removed tiles.
 38. The computerreadable medium of claim 37 wherein the removed one or more tiles areconverted to icons that are placed into said overflow area.
 39. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 37, wherein said overflow area hasmultiple rows of icons.
 40. The computer readable medium of claim 37,wherein said overflow area expands in accordance with an amount ofneeded space to display said removed one or more tiles.
 41. The computerreadable medium of claim 36, wherein said removed one or more tiles areplaced into a second sidebar.
 42. The computer readable medium of claim36, wherein said sidebar comprises multiple columns, further comprisingcomputer executable instructions for moving one or more tiles from saidsecond group of tiles into another column of said sidebar.
 43. Thecomputer readable medium of claim 34, wherein said removal of said oneor more tiles is performed automatically by one or more applicationprograms.
 44. The computer readable medium of claim 34, whereinidentifying one or more tiles to remove from the second group of tilesis performed based on one or more criteria.
 45. The computer readablemedium of claim 44, wherein said one or more criteria includes at leastone of default tile size and tile priority.
 46. The computer readablemedium of claim 34, wherein said first group of tiles are notoverlapping and can be varied in dimension to accommodate the additionof other tiles.
 47. The computer readable medium of claim 34, whereineach of the second group of tiles displayed in their shrunken state isinteractive.
 48. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein saidshrinking maintains the aspect ratio of each of the second group oftiles.
 49. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein saidshrinking is a continuous transition from full scale to the shrunkenstate.
 50. The computer readable medium of claim 34, wherein saidsidebar can be customized by a user.
 51. A system for providing useraccess to a variety of informational items, comprising: a sidebar havinga predetermined display size and configured to provide dynamic contentthat is updated automatically; a plurality of tiles to display at leastpart of the dynamic content; and an overflow area, wherein said sidebarcontains a first region and a second region, the first region configuredto display said plurality of tiles and the second region configured toinclude said overflow area; wherein, in response to an automatic updateof the dynamic content, an additional tile is created for displayingadditional content resulting from the update, a total display area isdetermined for the plurality of tiles including the additional tilebased on default tile sizes, an available display area of the sidebar isdetermined based on the predetermined display size, the total displayarea is compared to the available display area, and when the comparisonindicates that the total display area exceeds the available displayarea, the plurality of tiles including the additional tiles are shrunkto fit in the sidebar, and one of more of the shrunken tiles areautomatically removed from the first region to provide sufficient spacein the first region to display the remaining tiles in respective defaulttile sizes while maintaining the sidebar at the predetermined displaysize; wherein one or more icons are placed in said overflow area torepresent the one or more automatically removed tiles; and wherein theone or more icons placed in said overflow area are visible without userinteraction.
 52. A system as recited in claim 51, wherein prior toplacing the one or more icons in said overflow area, said plurality oftiles are squished within said sidebar to notify a user that the removedone or more tiles will be removed from said sidebar.
 53. A system asrecited in claim 51, wherein prior to being removed from the sidebar,said one or more tiles flash to provide visual notification to a user.54. A system as recited in claim 51, wherein said one or more tiles areremoved due to an addition of a new tile, and said addition is performedautomatically by an application program.
 55. A system as recited inclaim 51, wherein said one or more tiles are removed due to an additionof a new tile, and said addition is performed manually by user request.56. A system as recited in claim 51, wherein said one or more tiles thatget removed are selected according to one or more criteria one from thegroup consisting of position within said sidebar, default tile size, andtile priority.
 57. A computing system having computer executableinstructions for performing a method for a user interaction scheme, themethod comprising: configuring a sidebar of a predetermined display sizeto provide dynamic content that is automatically updated; hosting afirst group of tiles within the sidebar to display at least part of thedynamic content; in response to an automatic update of the dynamiccontent, providing for the addition of one or more tiles to sidebar fordisplaying additional content produced by the update, resulting in asecond group of tiles; determining a total display area of the secondgroup of tiles based on default tile sizes; determining an availabledisplay area of the sidebar based on the predetermined display size;comparing the total display area to the available display area; and whenthe comparison indicates that the total display area exceeds theavailable display area, performing the following: shrinking said secondgroup of tiles to fit within said sidebar; and automatically removing,by the computing system, one or more tiles from the second group oftiles in said sidebar so that a remainder of tiles in the second groupof tiles is displayable at respective default sizes while maintainingthe sidebar at the predetermined display size, wherein the second groupof tiles is displayed in the sidebar in a shrunken state prior to theautomatic removal of the one or more tiles.
 58. A user interface storedon a computer readable medium and executable on a computer, comprising:a sidebar area providing dynamic content, the sidebar area having afirst region and a second region, wherein the first region is configuredto display one or more tiles to display at least part of the dynamiccontent, wherein, in response to an automatic update of the dynamiccontent, a tile is added to the first region, and the tiles in the firstregion are displayed in a shrunken state to fit within the sidebar,wherein one or more of the shrunken tiles are automatically removed fromthe first region to provide sufficient space in the first region todisplay the remaining tiles in respective default sizes whilemaintaining the sidebar at a predetermined display size, wherein thesecond region includes an overflow area displaying a plurality of iconseach representing a respective one of the one or more tilesautomatically removed from said first region, wherein each of theplurality of icons includes indicia of its respective tile, the indiciabeing visible in the overflow area without user interaction, and whereinthe sidebar is displayed at a predetermined display size before theautomatic removal of the one or more tiles.
 59. A computer-implementedmethod for execution in a graphical user interface environment for userinteraction, comprising: displaying a sidebar of a predetermined displaysize to provide dynamic content; presenting on the graphical userinterface a first group of tiles within the sidebar; in response to anautomatic update of the dynamic content, providing for the addition ofone or more tiles to said sidebar, resulting in a second group of tiles;shrinking said second group of tiles to fit within said sidebar if thereis insufficient display area within said sidebar for said second groupof tiles to be displayed in a default size while maintaining the sidebarat the predetermined display size; presenting on the graphical userinterface an overflow area in the sidebar configured to display one ormore icons each representing a respective one of one or more tilesautomatically removed from said sidebar, wherein the second group oftiles is displayed in a shrunken state in the sidebar prior to the oneor more tiles being automatically removed from the sidebar, wherein aremainder of the second group of tiles not removed from the sidebar areexpanded to a default size subsequent to the one or more tiles beingautomatically removed, and wherein each of the one or more iconsincludes indicia of its respective tile, the indicia being visible inthe sidebar without user interaction.